Balham

Balham is a neighborhood in Wandsworth, south-west London, England. It was named Belgeham ("rounded enclosure village") by the Anglo-Saxons and was granted to a Norman knight during the Norman Conquest, rendering £2 by 1086. By the 1600s, the village of "Balham" was part of the parish of Streatham, and the opening of the railway station in 1856 led to the increased urbanization of the area. On 14 October 1940, during World War II, the Luftwaffe destroyed the water and gas mains above the Balham tube station during "The Blitz", killing 64 people taking shelter in the London Underground. On 17 July 1974, the Provisional IRA bombed government buildings in Balham during the Troubles, causing significant damage and no casualties. By the 21st century, Balham was an increasingly middle-class professional neighborhood, and it had a large Polish population as well as significant Irish, Portuguese, Somali, Pakistani, and Brazilian communities.